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nis FouDiioiis of Fail 



A LECTURE 



BY 



ROB'T G. Ingersoll. 



Only authorized and complete edition. 



NEW YORK. 

C. P. FARREEL, PUBLISHER, 

1896. 



NOTICE! 



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Washington, D. C, July jo, j88o. 
I wish to notify the public that all books and pamphlets pur- 
porting to contain my lectures, and not containing the imprint of 
Mr. C. P. Farrell as publisher, are spurious, grossly inaccu- 
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R. G. Ingersoll. 



THE 

FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH 

A LECTURE 

BY 

Robert G. Ingersoll. 



ONL Y A UTHORIZED EDITION. 



C. P. FARRELL, PUBLISHER, 

NEW YORK. 
1896. 



72-5" 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1895, 

By ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, 

In the Omce of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 



The Eckler Pkzjj 
3s5 rULTON v5r. 

NewYork. 



Gift 

MAR 1 8 1924 



^9 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH, 



I. 

THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

ONE of the foundation stones of our faith is the 
Old Testament. If that book is not true, if 
its authors were unaided men, if it contains blun- 
ders and falsehoods, then that stone crumbles to 
dust. 

The geologists demonstrated that the author of 
Genesis was mistaken as to the age of the world, 
and that the story of the universe having been 
created in six days, about six thousand years ago 
could not be true. 

The theologians then took the ground that the 
" days " spoken of in Genesis were periods of time, 
epochs, six "long whiles, " and that the work of 
creation might have been commenced millions of 
years ago. 

(S) 



4 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

The change of days into epochs was considered 
by the believers of the bible as a great triumph over 
the hosts of infidelity. The fact that Jehovah had 
ordered the Jews to keep the Sabbath, giving as a 
reason that he had made the world in six days and 
rested on the seventh, did not interfere with the ac- 
ceptance of the "epoch" theory. 

But there is still another question. How long has 
man been upon the earth ? 

According to the bible, Adam was certainly the 
first man, and in his case the epoch theory cannot 
change the account. The bible gives the age at 
which Adam died, and gives the generations to the 
flood — then to Abraham and so on, and shows that 
from the creation of Adam to the birth of Christ it 
was about four thousand and four years. 

According to the sacred Scriptures man has been 
on this earth five thousand eight hundred and ninety- 
nine years and no more. 

Is this true ? 

Geologists have divided a few years of the worlds 
history into periods, reaching from the azoic rocks 
to the soil of our time. With most of these periods 
they associate certain forms of life, so that it is known 
that the lowest forms of life belonged with the earliest 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 5 

periods, and the higher with the more recent. It is 
also known that certain forms of life existed in Europe 
many ages ago, and that many thousands of years 
ago these forms disappeared. 

For instance, it is well established that at one time 
there lived in Europe, and in the British Islands 
some of the most gigantic mammals, the mammoth, 
the woolly-haired rhinoceros, the Irish elk, elephants 
and other forms that have in those countries become 
extinct. Geologists say that many thousands of 
years have passed since these animals ceased to in- 
habit those countries. 

It was during the Drift Period that these forms 
of life existed in Europe and England, and that 
must have been hundreds of thousands of years 
ago. 

In caves, once inhabited by men, have been found 
implements of flint and the bones of these extinct 
animals. With the flint tools man had split the 
bones of these beasts that he might secure the mar- 
row for food. 

Many such caves and hundreds of such tools, and 
of such bones have been found. And we now know 
that in the Drift Period man was the companion of 
these extinct monsters. 



6 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

It is therefore certain that many, many thousands 
of years before Adam lived, men, women and children 
inhabited the earth. 

It is certain that the account in the Bible of the 
creation of the first man is a mistake. It is certain 
that the inspired writers knew nothing about the 
origin of man. 

Let me give you another fact : 

The Egyptians were astronomers. A few years 
ago representations of the stars were found on the 
w r alls of an old temple, and it was discovered by 
calculating backward that the stars did occupy the 
exact positions as represented about seven hundred 
and fifty years before Christ. Afterwards another 
representation of the stars was found, and by cal- 
culating in the same way, it was found that the 
stars did occupy the exact positions represented 
about three thousand eight hundred years before 
Christ. 

According to the bible the first man was created 
four thousand and four years before Christ. If this 
is true then Egypt was founded, its language formed, 
its arts cultivated, its astronomical discoveries made 
and recorded about two hundred years after the 
creation of the first man. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 7 

In other words, Adam was two or three hundred 
years old when the Egyptian astronomers made these 
representations. 

Nothing can be more absurd. 

Again I say that the writers of the bible were 
mistaken. 

How do I know? 

According to that same bible there was a flood 
some fifteen or sixteen hundred years after Adam 
was created that destroyed the entire human 
race with the exception of eight persons, and ac- 
cording to the bible the Egyptians descended from 
one of the sons of Noah. How then did the 
Egyptians represent the stars in the position 
they occupied twelve hundred years before the 
flood? 

No one pretends that Egypt existed as a nation 
before the flood. Yet the astronomical representa- 
tions found, must have been made more than a 
thousand years before the world was drowned. 

There is another mistake in the bible. 

According to that book the sun was made after 
the earth was created. 

Is this true ? 

Did the earth exist before the sun ? 



8 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

The men of science are believers in the exact 
opposite. They believe that the earth is a child of 
the sun — that the earth, as well as the other planets 
belonging to our constellation, came from the sun. 

The writers of the bible were mistaken. 

There is another point : 

According to the bible, Jehovah made the world in 
six days, and the work done each day is described. 
What did Jehovah do on the second day? 

This is the record : 

"And God said: Let there be a firmament in the 
midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from 
the waters. And God made the firmament and 
divided the waters which were under the firma- 
ment from the waters which were above the firma- 
ment. And it was so, and God called the firmament 
heaven. And the evening and the morning were 
the second day." 

The writer of this believed in a solid firmament — 
the floor of Jehovah's house. He believed that the 
waters had been divided, and that the rain came from 
above the firmament. He did not understand the 
fact of evaporation — did not know that the rain came 
from the water on the earth. 

Now, we know that there is no firmament, and 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 9 

we know that the waters are not divided by a firma- 
ment. Consequently we know that, according to the 
bible, Jehovah did nothing on the second day. He 
must have rested on Tuesday. This being so, we 
ought to have two Sundays a week. 

Can we rely on the historical parts of the bible ? 

Seventy souls went dow r n into Egypt, and in two 
hundred and fifteen years increased to fifteen millions. 
They could not have doubled more than four times 
a century. Say nine times in two hundred and 
fifteen years. 

This makes thirty-five thousand eight hundred 
and forty, (35,840,) instead of three millions. 

Can we believe the accounts of the battles ? 

Take one instance : 

Jereboam had an army of eight hundred thousand 
men, Abijah of four hundred thousand. They fought. 
The Lord was on Abijah's side, and he killed five 
hundred thousand of Jereboam's men. 

All these soldiers were Jews — all lived in Pales- 
tine, a poor miserable little country about one-quarter 
as large as the State of New York. Yet one million 
two hundred thousand soldiers were put in the field. 
This required a population in the country of ten or 
twelve millions. Of course this is absurd. Palestine 



IO THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

in its palmiest days could not have supported two 
millions of people. 

The soil is poor. 

If the bible is inspired, is it true ? 

We are told by this inspired book of the gold and 
silver collected by King David for the temple— 
the temple afterwards completed by the virtuous 
Solomon. 

According to the blessed bible, David collected 
about two thousand million dollars in silver, and five 
thousand million dollars in gold, making a total of 
seven thousand million dollars. 

Is this true ? 

There is in the bank of France at the present time 
(1895) nearly six hundred million dollars, and so far 
as we know r , it is the greatest amount that was ever 
gathered together. All the gold now known, coined 
and in bullion, does not amount to much more than 
the sum collected by David. 

Seven thousand millions. Where did David get 
this gold ? The Jews had no commerce. They 
owned no ships. They had no great factories, they 
produced nothing for other countries. There were 
no gold or silver mines in Palestine. Where then 
was this gold, this silver found ? I will tell you : In 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 1 1 

the imagination of a writer who had more patriotism 
than intelligence, and who wrote, not for the sake of 
truth, but for the glory of the Jews. 

Is it possible that David collected nearly eight 
thousand tons of gold — that he by economy got to- 
gether about sixty thousand tons of silver, making a 
total of gold and silver of sixty-eight thousand tons ? 

The average freight car carries about fifteen tons — 
David's gold and silver would load about four thou- 
sand five hundred and thirty-three cars, making a 
train about thirty-two miles in length. And all this 
for the temple at Jerusalem, a building ninety feet 
long and forty-five feet high and thirty wide, to which 
was attached a porch thirty feet wide, ninety feet 
long and one hundred and eighty feet high. 

Probably the architect was inspired. 

Is there a sensible man in the world who believes 
that David collected seven thousand million dollars 
worth of gold or silver ? 

There is hardly five thousand million dollars of 
gold now used as money in the whole world. Think 
of the millions taken from the mines of California, 
Australia and Africa during the present century and 
yet the total scarcely exceeds the amount collected 
by King David more than a thousand years before 



12 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

the birth of Christ. Evidently the inspired historian 
made a mistake. 

It required a little imagination and a few ciphers 
to change seven million dollars or seven hundred 
thousand dollars into seven thousand million dollars. 
Drop four ciphers and the story becomes fairly rea- 
sonable. 

The Old Testament must be thrown aside. It is 
no longer a foundation. It has crumbled. 



II. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

BUT we have the new Testament, the sequel of 
the Old, in which Christians find the fulfillment 
of prophecies made by inspired Jews. 

The New Testament vouches for the truth, the 
inspiration of the Old, and if the Old is false, the 
New cannot be true. 

In the New Testament we find all that we know 
about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. 

It is claimed that the writers were divinely in- 
spired, and that all they wrote is true. 

Let us see if these writers agree. 

Certainly there should be no difference about the 
birth of Christ. From the Christian's point of view, 
nothing could have been of greater importance than 
that event. 

Matthew says : " Now when Jesus was born in 
Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King, 
behold there came wise men from the east to Jeru- 
salem, 

(18) 



14 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

Saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? 
for we have seen his star in the east and are come 
to worship him. 

Matthew does not tell us who these wise men 
were, from what country they came, to what race 
they belonged. He did not even know their 
names. 

We are also informed that when Herod heard 
these things he was troubled and all Jerusalem with 
him ; that he gathered the chief priests and asked 
of them where Christ should be born and they told 
him that he was to be born in Bethlehem. 

Then Herod called the wise men and asked them 
when the star appeared, and told them to go to 
Bethlehem and report to him. 

When they left Herod, the star again appeared 
and went before them until it stood over the place 
where the child was. 

When they came to the child they worshiped 
him, — gave him gifts, and being warned by God in a 
dream, they went back to their own country without 
calling on Herod. 

Then the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in 
a dream and told him to take Mary and the child 
into Egypt for fear of Herod. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 1 5 

So Joseph took Mary and the child to Egypt and 
remained there until the death of Herod. 

Then Herod, finding that he was mocked by the 
wise men, " sent forth and slew all the children that 
were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof from 
two years old and under." 

After the death of Herod an angel again appeared 
ift a dream to Joseph and told him to take mother 
and child and go back to Palestine. 

So he went back and dwelt in Nazareth. 

Is this story true ? Must we believe in the 
star and the wise men ? Who were these 
wise men ? From what country did they come ? 
What interest had they in the birth of the King 
of the Jews? What became of them and their 
star ? 

Of course I know that the Holy Catholic Church 
has in her keeping the three skulls that belonged to 
these wise men, but I do not know where the church 
obtained these relics, nor exactly how their genuine- 
ness has been established. 

Must we believe that Herod murdered the babes 
of Bethlehem ? 

Is it not wonderful that the enemies of Herod did 
not charge him with this horror ? Is it not marvel- 



1 6 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

ous that Mark and Luke and John forgot to mention 
this most heartless of massacres ? 

Luke also gives an account of the birth of Christ, 
He says that there went out a decree from Caesar 
Augustus that all the world should be taxed ; that 
this was when Cyrenius was governor of Syria ; that 
in accordance with this decree, Joseph and Mary 
went to Bethlehem to be taxed ; that at that place 
Christ was born and laid in a manger. He also says 
that shepherds, in the neighborhood, were told of 
the birth by an angel, with whom was a multitude 
of the heavenly host ; that these shepherds visited 
Mary and the child, and told others what they had 
seen and heard. 

He tells us that after eight days the child was 
named, Jesus ; that forty days after his birth he was 
taken by Joseph and Mary to Jerusalem, and that 
after they had performed all things according to the 
law they returned to Nazareth. Luke also says that 
the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, and that 
his parents went every year to Jerusalem. 

Do the accounts in Matthew and Luke agree ? 
Can both accounts be true ? 

Luke never heard of the star, and Matthew knew 
nothing of the heavenly host. Luke never heard of 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. I 7 

the wise men, nor Matthew of the shepherds. Luke 
knew nothing of the hatred of Herod, the murder of 
the babes or the flight into Egypt. According to 
Matthew, Joseph, warned by an angel, took Mary 
and the child and fled into Egypt. According to 
Luke they all went to Jerusalem, and from there 
back to Nazareth. 

Both of these accounts cannot be true. Will some 
Christian scholar tell us which to believe ? 

When was Christ born ? 

Luke says that it took place when Cyrenius was 
governor. Here is is another mistake. Cyrenius 
was not appointed governor until after the death of 
Herod, and the taxing could not have taken place 
until ten years after the alleged birth of Christ. 

Recording to Luke, Joseph and Mary lived in 
Nazareth, and for the purpose of getting them to 
Bethlehem, so that the child could be born in the 
right place, the taxing under Cyrenius was used, but 
the writer, being " inspired " made a mistake of 
about ten years as to the time of the taxing and of 
the birth. 

Matthew says nothing about the date of the birth, 
except that he was born when Herod was king. It 
is now known that Herod had been dead ten years 



I 8 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

before the taxing under Cyrenius. So, if Luke tells 
the truth, Joseph, being warned by an angel, fled 
from the hatred of Herod ten years after Herod was 
dead. If Matthew and Luke are both right Christ 
was taken to Egypt ten years before he was born, 
and Herod killed the babes ten years after he was 
dead. 

Will some Christian scholar have the goodness to 
harmonize these " inspired " accounts ? 

There is another thing. 

Matthew and Luke both try to show that Christ 
was of the blood of David, that he was a descendant 
of that virtuous king. 

As both of these writers were inspired and as both 
received their information from God, they ought to 
agree. 

According to Matthew there was between David 
and Jesus twenty-seven generations, and he gives 
all the names. 

According to Luke there were between David 
and Jesus forty-two generations, and he gives all 
the names. 

In these genealogies — both inspired — there is a 
difference between David and Jesus, a difference of 
some fourteen or fifteen generations. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH, 1 9 

Besides, the names of all the ancestors are differ- 
ent, with two exceptions. 

Matthew says that Joseph's father was Jacob. 
Luke says that Heli was Joseph's father. 

Both of these genealogies cannot be true, and the 
probability is that both are false. 

There is not in all the pulpits ingenuity enough 
to harmonize these ignorant and stupid contradictions. 

There are many curious mistakes in the words 
attributed to Christ. 

We are told in Matthew, chapter xxiii, verse 35, 
that Christ said : 

" That upon you may come all the righteous blood 
shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous 
Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, 
whom ye slew between the temple and the altar." 

It is certain that these words were not spoken by 
Christ. He could not by any possibility have known 
that the blood of Zacharias had been shed. As a 
matter of fact, Zacharias was killed by the Jews, 
during the seige of Jerusalem by Titus, and this 
seige took place seventy-one years after the birth of 
Christ, thirty-eight years after he was dead. 

There is still another mistake. 

Zacharias was not the son of Barachias — no such 



20 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

Zacharias was killed. The Zacharias that was slain 
was the son of Barueh. 

But we must not expect the " inspired " to be 
accurate. 

Matthew says that at the time of the crucifixion— 
" the graves were opened and that many bodies of 
the saints which slept arose and came out of their 
graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy 
city and appeared unto many." 

According to this the graves were opened at the 
time of the crucifixion, but the dead did not arise 
and come out until after the resurrection of Christ. 

They were polite enough to sit in their open 
graves and wait for Christ to rise first. 

To whom did these saints appear ? What became 
of them ? Did they slip back into their graves and 
commit suicide ? 

Is it not wonderful that Mark, Luke and John 
never heard of these saints ? 

What kind of saints were they ? Certainly they 
were not Christian saints. 

So, the inspired writers do not agree in regard to 
Judas. 

Certainly the inspired writers ought to have known 
what happened to Judas, the betrayer. Matthew 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 21 

being duly " inspired " says that when Judas saw 
that Jesus had been condemned, he repented and 
took back the money to the chief priests and elders, 
saying that he had sinned in betraying the innocent 
blood. They said to him : " What is that to us ? 
See thou to that." Then Judas threw down the 
pieces of silver and went and hanged himself. 

The chief priests then took the pieces of silver and 
bought the potter's field to bury strangers in, and it 
is called the field of blood. 

We are told in Acts of the Apostles that Peter 
stood up in the midst of the disciples and said: " Now 
this man, (Judas) purchased a field with the reward 
of iniquity — and falling headlong he burst asunder 
and all his bowels gushed out — that field is called 
the field of blood," 

Matthew says Judas repented and gave back the 
money. 

Peter says that he bought a field with the money. 

Matthew says that Judas hanged himself. Peter 
says that he fell down and burst asunder. Which 
of these accounts is true ? 

Besides, it is hard to see why Christians hate, 
loathe and despise Judas. According to their scheme 
of salvation, it was absolutely necessary that Christ 



2 2 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

should be killed — necessary that he should be 
betrayed, and had it not been for Judas, all the 
world, including Christ's mother, and the part of 
Christ that was human, would have gone to hell. 

Yet, according to the New Testament, Christ did 
not know that one of his disciples was to betray him. 

Jesus, when on his way to Jerusalem, for the last 
time, said, speaking to the twelve disciples, Judas 
being present, that they, the disciples should there- 
after sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes 
of Israel. 

Yet, more than a year before this journey, John 
says that Christ said, speaking to the twelve disciples: 
" Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is 
a devil." And John adds : " He spake of Judas 
Iscariot, for it was he that should betray him." 

Why did Christ a year afterwards, tell Judas that 
he should sit on a throne and judge one of the tribes 
of Israel ? 

There is still another trouble. 

Paul says that Jesus after his resurrection appeared 
to the twelve disciples. According to Paul, Jesus 
appeared to Judas with the rest. 

Certainly Paul had not heard the story of the 
betrayal. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 23 

Why did Christ select Judas as one of his disciples, 
knowing that he would betray him ? Did he desire 
to be betrayed ? Was it his intention to be put to 
death ? 

Why did he fail to defend himself before Pilate ? 

According to the accounts, Pilate wanted to save 
him. Did Christ wish to be convicted ? 

The Christians are compelled to say that Christ 
intended to be sacrificed — that he selected Judas 
with that end in view, and that he refused to defend 
himself because he desired to be crucified. All this 
is in accordance with the horrible idea that without 
the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. 



IIL 
JEHOVAH. 

GOD the Father, 
The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the 
God of the Christians. 

He it was who created the Universe, who made 
all substance all force, all life, from nothing. He it 
is who has governed and still governs the world. 
He has established and destroyed empires and 
kingdoms, despotisms and republics. He has en- 
slaved and liberated the sons of men. He has caused 
the sun to rise on the good and on the evil, and his 
rain to fall on the just and the unjust. 

This shows his goodness. 

He has caused his volcanoes to devour the good 
and the bad, his cyclones to wreck and rend the 
generous and the cruel, his floods to drown the lov- 
ing and the hateful, his lightning to kill the virtuous 
and the vicious, his famines to starve the innocent 
and criminal and his plagues to destroy the wise and 
good, the ignorant and wicked. He has allowed his 

(24) 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 25 

enemies to imprison, to torture and to kill his friends. 
He has permitted blasphemers to flay his worship- 
ers alive, to dislocate their joints upon racks, and to 
burn them at the stake. He has allowed men to 
enslave their brothers and to sell babes from the 
breasts of mothers. 

This shows his impartiality. 

The pious negro who commenced his prayer : " O 
thou great and unscrupulous God/' was nearer right 
than he knew. 

Ministers ask : Is it possible for God to forgive 
man ? 

And when I think of what has been suffered — 
of the centuries of agony and tears, I ask : Is it 
possible for man to forgive God ? 

How do Christians prove the existence of their 
God ? Is it possible to think of an infinite being ? 
Does the word God correspond with any image in 
the mind ? Does the word God stand for what we 
know or for what we do not know? 

Is not this unthinkable God, a guess, an inference ? 

Can we think of a being without form, without 
body, without parts, without passions ? Why should 
we speak of a being without body as of the mascu- 
line gender ? 



26 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

Why should the bible speak of this God as a man ? 
— of his walking in the garden in the cool of the 
evening — of his talking, hearing and smelling ? If 
he has no passions why is he spoken of as jealous, 
revengeful, angry, pleased and loving ? 

In the bible God is spoken of as a person in the 
form of man, journeying from place to place, as hav- 
ing a home and occupying a throne. These ideas 
have been abandoned, and now the Christian's God 
is the infinite, the incomprehensible, the formless, 
bodiless and passionless. 

Of the existence of such a being there can be, in 
the nature of things, no evidence. 

Confronted with the universe, with fields of space 
sown thick with stars, with all there is of life, the 
wise man, being asked the origin and destiny of all, 
replies : (< I do not know. These questions are 
beyond the powers of my mind." The wise man is 
thoughtful and modest. He clings to facts. Beyond 
his intellectual horizon he does not pretend to see. 
He does not mistake hope for evidence or desire for 
demonstration. He is honest. He neither deceives 
himself nor others. 

The theologian arrives at the unthinkable, the 
inconceivable, and he calls this God. The scientist 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 2 J 

arrives at the unthinkable, the inconceivable, and 
calls it the Unknown/ 

The theologian insists that his inconceivable 
governs the world, that it, or he, or they, can be 
influenced by prayers and ceremonies, that it, or he, 
or they, punishes and rewards, that it, or he, or they, 
has priests and temples. 

The scientist insist that the Unknown is not 
changed so far as he knows by prayers of people 
or priests. He admits that he does not know 
whether the Unknown is good or bad — whether he, 
or it, wants or whether he, or it, is worthy of worship. 
He does not say that the Unknown is God, that it 
created substance and force, life and thought. He 
simply says that of the Unknown he knows nothing. 

Why should Christians insist that a God of infinite 
wisdom, goodness and power governs the world ? 

Why did he allow millions of his children to be 
enslaved ? Why did he allow millions of mothers 
to be robbed of their babes ? Why has he allowed 
injustice to triumph ? Why has he permitted the 
innocent to be imprisoned and the good to be burned ? 
Why has he withheld his rain and starved millions 
of the children of men ? Why has he allowed the 
volcanoes to destroy, the earthquakes to devour, and 
the tempest to wreck and rend ? 



IV. 
THE TRINITY. 

THE New Testament informs us that Christ was 
the son of Joseph and the son of God, and 
that Mary was his mother. 

How is it established that Christ was the son of 
God?— 

It is said that Joseph was told so in a dream by 
an angel. 

But Joseph wrote nothing on that subject — said 
nothing so far as we know. Mary wrote nothing, 
said nothing. The angel that appeared to Joseph or 
that informed Joseph said nothing to anybody else. 
Neither has the Holy Ghost, the supposed father, 
ever said or written one word. We have received 
no information from the parties who could have 
known anything on the subject. We get all our facts 
from those who could not have known. 

How is it possible to prove that the Holy Ghost 
was the father of Christ ? 

(28) 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 29 

Who knows that such a being as the Holy Ghost 
ever existed ? 

How was it possible for Mary to know anything 
about the Holy Ghost ? 

How could Joseph know that he had been visited 
by an angel in a dream ? 

Could he know that the visitor was an angel ? It 
all occurred in a dream and poor Joseph was asleep. 
What is the testimony of one who was asleep worth ? 

All the evidence we have is that somebody who 
wrote part of the New Testament says that the 
Holy Ghost was the father of Christ, and that some- 
body who wrote another part of the New Testament 
says that Joseph was the father of Christ. 

Matthew and Luke give the genealogy and both 
show that Christ was the son of Joseph. 

The " Incarnation " has to be believed without evi- 
dence. There is no way in which it can be estab- 
lished. It is beyond the reach and realm of reason. 
It defies observation and is independent of ex- 
penence. 

It is claimed not only that Christ was the Son of 
God, but that he was, and is, God. 

Was he God before he was born ? Was the 
body of Mary the dwelling place of God ? 

/ 



30 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH, 

What evidence have we that Christ was God ? 

Somebody has said that Christ claimed that God 
was his father and that he and his father were one. 
We do not know who this somebody was and do 
not know from whom he received his information. 

Somebody who was " inspired " has said that 
Christ was of the blood of David through his father 
Joseph. 

This is all the evidence we have. 

Can we believe that God, the creator of the Uni- 
verse, learned the trade of a carpenter in Palestine, 
that he gathered a few disciples about him, and after 
teaching for about three years, suffered himself to be 
crucified by a few ignorant and pious Jews ? 

Christ, according to the faith, is the second person 
in the Trinity, the Father being the first and the 
Holy Ghost the third. Each of these three persons 
is God. Christ is his own father and his own son. 
The Holy Ghost is neither father nor son, but both. 
The son was begotten by the father, but existed 
before he was begotten — -just the same before as 
after. Christ is just as old as his father, and the 
father is just as young as his son. The Holy Ghost 
proceeded from the Father and Son, but was equal 
to the Father and Son before he proceeded, that is 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 3 1 

to say, before he existed, but he is of the same age 
of the other two. 

So, it is declared that the Father is God, and the 
Son God and the Holy Ghost God, and that these 
three Gods make one God. 

According to the celestial multiplication table, 
once one is three, and three times one is one, and 
according to heavenly subtraction if we take two 
from three, three are left. The addition is equally 
peculiar, if we add two to one we have but one. 
Each one is equal to himself and the other two. 
Nothing ever was, nothing ever can be more per- 
fectly idiotic and absurd than the dogma of the 
Trinity, 

How is it possible to prove the existence of the 
Trinity ? 

Is it possible for a human being, who has been 
born but once, to comprehend, or to imagine the 
existence of three beings, each of whom is equal to 
the three ? 

Think of one of these beings as the father of one, 
and think of that one as half human and all God, and 
think of the third as having proceeded from the 
other two, and then think of all three as one. Think 
that after the father begot the son, the father was 



32 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

still alone, and after the Holy Ghost proceeded from 
the father and the son, the father was still alone — 
because there never was and never will be but one 
God. 

At this point, absurdity having reached its limit, 
nothing more can be said except : " Let us pray." 



V. 

THE THEOLOGICAL CHRIST. 

IN the New Testament we find the teachings and 
sayings of Christ. If we say that the book is 
inspired, then we must admit that Christ really said 
all the things attributed to him by the various writers. 
If the book is inspired we must accept it all. We 
have no right to reject the contradictory and absurd 
and accept the reasonable and good. We must take 
it all just as it is. 

My own observation has led me to believe that 
men are generally consistent in their theories and 
inconsistent in their lives. 

So, I think that Christ in his utterances was true 
to his theory, to his philosophy. 

If I find in the Testament sayings of a contradic- 
tory character, I conclude that some of those sayings 
were never uttered by him. The sayings that are, 
in my judgment, in accordance with what I believe 

(33) 



34 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

to have been his philosophy, I accept, and the others 
I throw away. 

There are some of his sayings which show him to 
have been a devout Jew, others that he wished to 
destroy Judaism, others showing that he held all 
people except the Jews in contempt and that he 
wished to save no others, others showing that he 
wished to convert the world, still others showing 
that he was forgiving, self-denying and loving, others 
that he was revengeful and malicious, others, that he 
was an ascetic, holding all human ties in utter con- 
tempt. 

The following passages show that Christ was a 
devout Jew. 

" Swear not, neither by heaven, for it is God's 
throne, nor by the earth for it is his footstool, neither 
by Jerusalem for it is his holy city. " 

" Think not that I am come to destroy the law or 
the prophets, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. ,, 

" For after all these things, (clothing, food and 
drink) do the Gentiles seek. " 

So, when he cured a leper, he said : " Go thy 
way, show thyself unto the priest and offer the gift 
that Moses commanded. " 

Jesus sent his disciples forth saying : Go not into 






THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 35 

the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the 
Samaritans enter ye not, but go rather to the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel." 

A woman came out of Canaan and cried to Jesus : 
" Have mercy on me, my daughter is sorely vexed 
with a devil " — but he would not answer. Then the 
disciples asked him to send her away, and he said : 
" I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house 
of Israel/' 

Then the woman worshiped him and said : " Lord 
help me." But he answered and said : " It is not 
meet to take the children's bread and cast it unto 
dogs." Yet for her faith he cured her child. 

So, when the young man asked him what he must 
do to be saved, he said : " Keep the command- 
ments." 

Christ said : " The scribes and the Pharisees sit 
in Moses' seat, all therefore whatsoever they bid you 
observe, that observe and do." 

It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than 
for one tittle of the law to fail. 

Christ went into the temple and cast out them 
that sold and bought there, and said : " It is written, 
my house is the house of prayer ; but ye have made 
it a den of thieves." 



36 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

" We know what we worship for salvation is of 
the Jews." 

Certainly all these passages were written by per- 
sons who regarded Christ as the Messiah. 

Many of the sayings attributed to Christ show that 
he was an ascetic, that he cared nothing for kindred, 
nothing for father and mother, nothing for brothers 
or sisters, and nothing for the pleasures of life. 

Christ said to a man : " Follow me," The man 
said : " Let me go and bury my father." Christ 
answered : " Let the dead bury the dead." An- 
other said : " I will follow thee, but first let me go 
and bid them farewell which are at home." 

Jesus said : " No man having put his hand to 
the plough, and looking back is fit for the kingdom 
of heaven. If thine eye offend thee pluck it out. If 
thy hand offend thee cut it off." 

One said unto him : " Behold thy mother and 
thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with 
thee." And he answered : " Who is my mother, 
and who are my brethren." Then he stretched forth 
his hand toward his disciples and said : " Behold 
my mother and my brethren." 

" And every one that hath forsaken houses, or 
brethren or sisters, or father or mother, or children, 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 37 

or lands for my name's sake shall receive an hundred 
fold and shall inherit everlasting life." 

11 He that loveth father or mother more than me 
is not worthy of me ; and he that loveth son or 
daughter more than me is not worthy of me." 

Christ it seems had a philosophy. 

He believed that God was a loving father, that 
he would take care of his children, that they need do 
nothing except to rely implicity on God. 

Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain 
mercy. 

Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do 
good to them that hate you and pray for them which 
despitefully use you and persecute you. 

Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat 
or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what 
ye shall put on. * * * For your heavenly Father 
knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 

Ask and it shall be given you. Whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them. If ye forgive men their trespasses your 
heavenly Father will also forgive you. The very 
hairs of your head are all numbered. 

Christ seemed to rely absolutely on the protection 
of God until the darkness of death gathered about 



38 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

him, and then he cried : " My God ! my God ! why 
hast thou forsaken me ? " 

While there are many passages in the New Tes- 
tament showing Christ to have been forgiving and 
tender, there are many others showing that he was 
exactly the opposite. 

What must have been the spirit of one who said : 
" I am come to send fire on the earth ? Suppose 
ye that I am come to give peace on earth ? I tell 
you, nay, but rather division. For from henceforth 
there shall be five in one house divided, three against 
two, and two against three. The father shall be 
divided against the son, and the son against the 
father, the mother against the daughter and the 
daughter against the mother, the mother-in law 
against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law 
against her mother-in-law." 

" If any man come to me and hate not his father 
and mother, and wife, and children and brethren and 
sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my 
disciple." 

" But those mine enemies, which would not that I 
should reign over them, bring hither and slay them 
before me." 

This passage built dungeons and lighted fagots. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 39 

" Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared 
for the devil and his angels." 

11 I came not to bring peace but a sword." 

All these sayings could not have been uttered by 
the same person. They are inconsistent with each 
other. Love does not speak the words of hatred. 
The real philanthropist does not despise all nations 
but his own. The teacher of universal forgiveness 
cannot believe in eternal torture. 

From the interpolations, legends, accretions, mis- 
takes and falsehoods in the New Testament is 
it possible to free the actual man ? Clad in mist 
and myth, hidden by the draperies of gods, deformed, 
indistinct as faces in clouds, is it possible to find and 
recognize the features, the natural face of the actual 
Christ ? 

For many centuries our fathers closed their eyes 
to the contradictions and inconsistencies of the Test- 
ament and in spite of their reason harmonized the 
interpolations and mistakes. 

This is no longer possible. The contradictions 
are too many, too glaring. There are contra- 
dictions of fact, not only, but of philosophy, of 
theory. 

The accounts of the trial, the crucifixion, and ascen- 



40 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

sion of Christ do not agree. They are full of mis- 
takes and contradictions. 

According to one account Christ ascended the 
day of, or the day after his resurrection. According 
to another he remained forty days after rising from 
the dead. According to one account, he was seen 
after his resurrection only by a few women and his 
disciples. According to another he was seen by the 
women, by his disciples on several occasions and by 
hundreds of others. 

According to Matthew, Luke and Mark, Christ 
remained for the most part in the country, seldom 
going to Jerusalem. According to John he remained 
mostly in Jerusalem, going occasionally into the 
country, and then generally to avoid his enemies. 

According to Matthew, Mark and Luke, Christ 
taught that if you would forgive others God would 
forgive you. According to John, Christ said that 
the only way to get to heaven was to believe on him 
and be born again. 

These contradictions are gross and palpable and 
demonstrate that the New Testament is not inspired, 
and that many of its statements must be false. 

If we wish to save the character of Christ, many 
of the passages must be thrown away. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH, 41 

We must discard the miracles or admit that he 
was insane or an impostor. We must discard the 
passages that breathe the spirit of hatred and revenge, 
or admit that he was malevolent. 

If Matthew was mistaken about the genealogy 
of Christ, about the wise men, the star, the flight into 
Egypt and the massacre of the babes by Herod, — 
then he may have been mistaken in many passages 
that he put in the mouth of Christ. 

The same may be said in regard to Mark, Luke 
and John. 

The church must admit that the writers of the 
New Testament were uninspired men — that they 
made many mistakes, that they accepted impossible 
legends as historical facts, that they were ignorant 
and superstitious, that they put malevolent, stupid, 
insane and unworthy words in the mouth of Christ, 
described him as the worker of impossible mir- 
acles and in many ways stained and belittled his 
character. 

The best that can be said about Christ is that 
nearly nineteen centuries ago he was born in the 
land of Palestine in a country without wealth, with- 
out commerce, in the midst of a people who knew 
nothing of the greater world — a people enslaved, 



42 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

crushed by the mighty power of Rome. That this 
babe, this child of poverty and want grew to man- 
hood without education, knowing nothing of art, or 
science, and at about the age of thirty began wan- 
dering about the hills and hamlets of his native land, 
discussing with priests, talking with the poor and 
sorrowful, writing nothing, but leaving his words in 
the memory or forgetfulness of those to whom he 
spoke. 

That he attacked the religion of his time because 
it was cruel. That this excited the hatred of those 
in power, and that Christ was arrested, tried and 
crucified. 

For many centuries this great Peasant of Palestine 
has been worshiped as God. 

Millions and millions have given their lives to his 
service. The wealth of the world was lavished on 
his shrines. His name carried consolation to the 
diseased and dying. His name dispelled the dark- 
ness of death, and filled the dungeon with light. His 
name gave courage to the martyr, and in the midst 
of fire, with shriveling lips the sufferer uttered it 
again and again. The outcasts, the deserted, the 
fallen, felt that Christ was their friend, felt that he 
knew their sorrows and pitied their sufferings. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 43 

The poor mother, holding her dead babe in her 
arms, lovingly whispered his name. His gospel has 
been carried by millions to all parts of the globe, and 
his story has been told by the self denying and 
faithful to countless thousands of the sons of men. In 
his name have been preached charity, — forgiveness 
and love. 

He it was, who according to the faith, brought im- 
mortality to light, and many millions have entered 
the valley of the shadow with their hands in his. 

All this is true, and if it were all, how beautiful, 
how touching, how glorious it would be. But it is 
not all. There is another side. 

In his name millions and millions of men and 
women have been imprisoned, tortured and killed. 
In his name millions and millions have been enslaved. 
In his name the thinkers, the investigators, have been 
branded as criminals, and his followers have shed the 
blood of the wisest and best. In his name the pro- 
gress of many nations was stayed for a thousand 
years. In his gospel was found the dogma of eternal 
pain, and his words added an infinite horror to 
death. His gospel filled the world with hatred and 
revenge ; made intellectual honesty a crime ; made 
happiness here the road to hell, denounced love as 



44 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

base and bestial, canonized credulity, crowned 
bigotry and destroyed the liberty of man. 

It would have been far better had the New Testa- 
ment never been written — far better had the theo- 
logical Christ never lived. Had the winters of the 
Testament been regarded as uninspired, had Christ 
been thought of only as a man, had the good been 
accepted and the absurd, the impossible, and the 
revengeful thrown away, mankind would have es- 
caped the wars, the tortures, the scaffolds, the dun- 
geons, the agony and tears, the crimes and sorrows 
of a thousand years. 



VI. 

THE " SCHEME." 

WE have also the scheme of redemption. 
According to this " scheme," by the sin 
of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, human 
nature became evil, corrupt and depraved. It became 
impossible for human beings to keep, in all things, 
the law of God. In spite of this, God allowed the 
people to live and multiply for some fifteen hun- 
dred years, and then on account of their wickedness 
drowned them all with the exception of eight 
persons. 

The nature of these eight persons was evil, corrupt 
and depraved, and in the nature of things their chil- 
dren would be cursed with the same nature. Yet 
God gave them another trial, knowing exactly what 
the result would be. A few of these wretches he 
selected and made them objects of his love and care, 
the rest of the world he gave to indifference and 
neglect. To civilize the people he had chosen, he 
assisted them in conquering and killing their neigh- 
bors, and gave them the assistance of priests and 

(45) 



46 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

inspired prophets. For their preservation and pun- 
ishment he wrought countless miracles, gave them 
many laws and a great deal of advice. He taught 
them to sacrifice oxen, sheep, and doves to the end 
that their sins might be forgiven. The idea was 
inculcated that there was a certain relation between 
the sin and the sacrifice, — the greater the sin, the 
greater the sacrifice. He also taught the savagery 
that without the shedding of blood there was no 
remission of sin. 

In spite of all his efforts, the people grew gradually 
worse. They would not, they could not keep his 
laws. 

A sacrifice had to be made for the sins of the 
people. The sins were too great to be washed out 
by the blood of animals or men. It became necessary 
for God himself to be sacrificed. All mankind were 
under the curse of the law. Either all the world 
must be lost or God must die. 

In only one way could the guilty be justified, 
and that was by the death, the sacrifice of the 
innocent. And the innocent being sacrificed must 
be great enough to atone for the world. There was 
but one such being — God. 

Thereupon God, took upon himself flesh, was 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 47 

born into the world — was known as Christ — was 
murdered, sacrificed by the Jews, and became an 
atonement for the sins of the human race. 

This is the scheme of Redemption, — the atone- 
ment. 

It is impossible to conceive of anything more 
utterly absurd. 

A man steals, and then sacrifices a dove, or gives 
a lamb to a priest. His crime remains the same. He 
need not kill something. Let him give back the 
thing stolen, and in future live an honest life. 

A man slanders his neighbor and then kills an ox. 
What has that to do with the slander. Let him 
take back his slander, make all the reparation that 
he can, and let the ox alone. 

There is no sense in sacrifice, never was and 
never will be. 

Make restitution, reparation, undo the wrong and 
you need shed no blood. 

A good law, one springing from the nature of 
things, cannot demand, and cannot except, and cannot 
be satisfied with the punishment, or the agony of the 
innocent. A god could not accept his own sufferings 
in justification of the guilty. — This is a complete 
subversion of all ideas of justice and morality. A 



48 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

god could not make a law for man, then suffer in the 
place of the man who had violated it, and say that 
the law had been carried out, and the penalty duly 
enforced. A man has committed murder, has been 
tried, convicted and condemned to death. Another 
man goes to the governor and says that he is willing 
to die in place of the murderer. The governor says : 
" All right, I accept your offer, a murder has been 
committed, somebody must be hung and your death 
will satisfy the law." 

But that is not the law. The law says, not that 
somebody shall be hanged, but that the murderer 
shall suffer death. 

Even if the governor should die in the place of 
the criminal, it would be no better. There would 
be two murders instead of one, two innocent men 
killed, one by the first murderer and one by the 
State, and the real murderer free. 

This, Christians call, "satisfying the law." 



VII. 
BELIEF. 

WE are told that all who believe in this scheme 
of redemption and have faith in the redeemer 
will be rewarded with eternal joy. Some think that 
men can be saved by faith without works, and some 
think that faith and works are both essential, but all 
agree that without faith there is no salvation. If 
you repent and believe on Jesus Christ, then his 
goodness will be imparted to you and the penalty of 
the law, so far as you are concerned, will be satisfied 
by the sufferings of Christ. 

You may repent and reform, you may make resti- 
tution, you may practise all the virtues, but without 
this belief in Christ, the gates of heaven will be shut 
against you forever. 

Where is this heaven ? The Christians do not 
know. 

Does the Christian go there at death, or must he 
wait for the general resurrection ? 

They do not know. 



5o THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

The Testament teaches that the bodies of the dead 
are to be raised ? Where are their souls in the 
meantime ? They do not know. 

Can the dead be raised ? The atoms composing 
their bodies enter into new combinations, into new 
forms, into wheat and corn, into the flesh of animals 
and into the bodies of other men. Where one man 
dies, and some of his atoms pass into the body of 
another man and he dies, to whom will these atoms 
belong in the day of resurrection ? 

If Christianity were only stupid and unscientific, 
if its God was ignorant and kind, if it promised 
eternal joy to believers and if the believers practised 
the forgiveness they teach, for one I should let the 
faith alone. 

But there is another side to Christianity. It is 
not only stupid, but malicious. It is not only un- 
scientific, but it is heartless. Its god is not only 
ignorant, but infinitely cruel. It not only promises 
the faithful an eternal reward, but declares that nearly 
all of the children of men, imprisoned in the dun- 
geons of God will suffer eternal pain. This is the 
savagery of Christianity. This is why I hate its 
unthinkable God, its impossible Christ, its inspired 
lies, and its selfish, heartless heaven. 

/ 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 5 1 

Christians believe in infinite torture, in eternal 
pain. 

Eternal Pain ! 

All the meanness of which the heart of man is 
capable is in that one word — Hell. 

That word is a den, a cave, in which crawl the 
slimy reptiles of revenge. 

That word certifies to the savagery of primitive 
man. 

That word is the depth, the dungeon, the abyss, 
from which civilized man has emerged. 

That word is the disgrace, the shame, the infamy, 
of our revealed religion. 

That word fills all the future with the shrieks of 
the damned. 

That word brutalizes the New Testament, changes 
the Sermon on the Mount to hypocrisy and cant, 
and pollutes and hardens the very heart of Christ. 

That word adds an infinite horror to death, and 
makes the cradle as terrible as the coffin* 

That word is the assassin of joy, the mocking mur- 
derer of hope. That word extinguishes the light of 
life and wraps the world in gloom. That word 
drives reason from his throne, and gives the crown 
to madness. 



52 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH, 

That word drove pity from the hearts of men, 
stained countless swords with blood, lighted fagots, 
forged chains, built dungeons, erected scaffolds, and 
filled the world with poverty and pain. 

That word is a coiled serpent in the mother's 
breast, that lifts its fanged head and hisses in her 
ear : — " Your child will be the fuel of eternal fire." 

That word blots from the firmament the star of 
hope and leaves the heavens black. 

That word makes the Christian's God an eternal 
torturer, an everlasting inquisitor — an infinite wild 
beast. 

This is the Christian prophecy of the eternal future: 

No hope in hell. 

No pity in heaven. 

No mercy in the heart of God, 



VIII. 
CONCLUSION. 

THE Old Testament is absurd, ignorant and 
cruel, — the New Testament is a mingling of 
the false and true — it is good and bad. 

The Jehovah of the Jews is an impossible monster. 
The Trinity absurd and idiotic, Christ is a myth or 
a man. 

The fall of man is contradicted by every fact con- 
cerning human history that we know. The scheme 
of redemption — through the atonement — is immoral 
and senseless. Hell was imagined by revenge, and 
the orthodox heaven is the selfish dream of heartless 
serfs and slaves. The foundations of the faith have 
crumbled and faded away. They were miracles, 
mistakes, and myths, ignorant and untrue, absurd, 
impossible, immoral, unnatural, cruel, childish, sav- 
age. Beneath the gaze of the scientist they van- 
ished, confronted by facts they disappeared. The 

(33) 



54 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

orthodox religion of our day has no foundation in 
truth. Beneath the superstructure can be found no 
fact. 

Some may ask " Are you trying to take our 
religion away ? " 

I answer No — superstition is not religion. Belief 
without evidence is not religion. Faith without 
facts is not religion. 

To love justice, to long for the right, to love 
mercy, to pity the suffering, to assist the weak, 
to forget wrongs and remember benefits — to love 
the truth, to be sincere, to utter honest words, to 
love liberty, to wage relentless war against slavery 
in all its forms, to love wife and child and friend, to 
make a happy home, to love the beautiful in art, 
in nature, to cultivate the mind, to be familiar 
with the mighty thoughts that genius has express- 
ed, the noble deeds of all the world, to cultivate 
courage and cheerfulness, to make others happy, 
to fill life with the splendor of generous acts, the 
warmth of loving words, to discard error, to destroy 
prejudice, to receive new truths with gladness, to 
cultivate hope, to see the calm beyond the storm, the 
dawn beyond the night, to do the best that can be 
done and then to be resigned — this is the religion 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 55 

of reason, the creed of science. This satisfies the 
brain and heart. 

But, says the prejudiced priest, the malicious min- 
ister, " You take away a future life." 

I am not trying to destroy another world, but I 
am endeavoring to prevent the theologians from 
destroying this. 

If we are immortal it is a fact in nature, and that 
fact does not depend on bibles, or Christs, on priests 
or creeds. 

The hope of another life was in the heart, long 
before the " sacred books " were written, and will 
remain there long- after all the " sacred books " are 
known to be the work of savage and superstitious 
men. Hope is the consolation of the world. 

The w r anderers hope for home. — Hope builds the 
house and plants the flowers and fills the air with 
song. 

The sick and suffering hope for health. — Hope 
gives them health and paints the roses in their 
cheeks. 

The lonely, the forsaken, hope for love. — Hope 
brings the lover to their arms. They feel the kisses 
on their eager lips. 

The poor in tenements and huts, in spite of rags 



56 THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. 

and hunger hope for wealth. — Hope fills their thin 
and trembling hands with gold. 

The dying hopes that death is but another birth, 
and Love leans above the pallid face and whispers, 
" We shall meet again. 1 ' 

Hope is the consolation of the world. 

Let us hope, that if there be a God that he is wise 
and good. 

Let us hope that if there be another life that it will 
bring peace and joy to all the children of men. 

And let us hope that this poor earth on which we 
live, may be a perfect world — a world without a 
crime — without a tear. 



faith or Agnosticism. 



THE 



Ingersoll- Field Discussion 

— BETWEEN — 

Robert G. Ingersoll 



— and — 

Henry M. Field, D. D. 

-<\ Only Rutlvorized, lull and Complete H&itton. y*~- 

ALL intelligent people love discussion— delight in word encounters, in in- 
tellectual combats. '1 he North American Review has lately been the 
arena of one of these mental tournaments— the discussion between Mr. 
Ingersoll and Dr. Field, who is editor of the The New York Evangelist and 
one of the celebrated Field family. 

Intense interest has naturally followed each step of this discussion as it ap- 
peared from month to month in the Review. Extra editions were soon exhausted, 
and the supply was always short of the demand. To satisfy the desire to have 
these articles in complete and inexpensive form, the publisher, by arrangement 
with the Review^ has printed the entire series in one volume. 

It is needless to say that it is lively reading. The question is an absorbing 
one, and will probably remain so even after the arguments pro and con are all 
in. Those who say that Mr. Ingersoll never brings forward a new argument, 
that his views have been answered over and over again, will do well to read 
this discussion, and to bear in mind while reading it that, as he says, " An argu- 
ment is always new— has the dew of morning upon it— until it is answered." 

Two leaders of thought are here arrayed in friendly antagonism— one the 
acknowledged intellectual giant of Freethought in this century, and the other 
an accepted champion of the Church. The weapons are of their own choice. 
How deftly wielded, and with what effect, the readers on each side will deter- 
mine. It is certain that intellectual liberty has been and will be advanced by 
the discussion, and that many thousands of eager spectators will come to this 
book to witness the splendid combat. 

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-TTJST PUBLISHED.. 



A new edition of "The Ingersoll-Gladstone Discussion" on the Christian 
religion. Cloth, 50 cents ; paper, 25 cents. 



Robert G. Ingeisoll's Works. 

GodS and Other Lectures. Comprising the Gods, Humboldt, Thomas 
Paine, Individuality, Heretics and Heresies. Paper 50c; cloth, $1.00. 

GhOStS and Other Lectures. Including The Ghosts, Liberty of Man 
Woman, and Child; The Declaration of Independence, About Farming in 
Illinois, Speech nominating James G. Blaine for Presidency in 1876, The Grant 
Banquet, A Tribute to Rev. Alex. Clark, The Past Rises before Me Like a Dream, 
and A Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll. Paper, 50c; cloth, $ 1.00. 

Some Mistakes of Moses. 270 pages, paper, 50c; cioth,$i.oo. 

interviews On Talmage. Being Six Interviews with the Famous 
Orator on Six Sermons by the Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage of Brooklyn, to which 
is added a Talmagian Catechism. Paper, 50c; cloth, $1.25. 

Blasphemy. Argument by R. G. Ingersoll in the Trial of C. B. Reynolds, at 
Morristown, N. J. Paper, 25c; cloth, 50c 

What Must We Do to Be Saved? Analyzes the so-called gospels of 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and devotes a chapter each to the Catholics, 
Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Evangelical Alliance, and answers 
the question of the Christians as to what he proposes instead of Christianity 
—the religion of sword and flame. Paper, 25 cents. 

The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child, just out. a Lecture. 

Paper, 25 cts. 

PrOSe-PoemS and Selections. Fifth edition, enlarged and re- 
vised. A handsome quarto, containing 383 pages. This is, beyond question, the 
cheapest and most elegant volume in Liberal literature. Its mechanical finish 
is worthy of its intrinsic excellence. No expense has been spared to make it the 
thing of beauty it is. The type is large and clear, the paper heavy, highly calen- 
dered, and richly tinted, the presswork faultless, and the binding as perfect as 
the best materials and skill can make it. 

As to the contents, it is enough to say that they include all of the choicest utterances 
of the greatest writer on the topics treated that has ever lived. 

Those who have not the good fortune to own all of Mr. Ingersoll's published works, 
will have in this book of selections many bright samples of his lofty thought, his 
matchless eloquence, his wonderful imagery, and his epigrammatic and poetic 
power. The collection includes all of the " Tributes " that have become famous 
in literature— notably those to his brother E. 0. Ingersoll, Lincoln, Grant, 
Beecher, Conklin, Courtlandt M. Palmer, Mary Fiske, Elizur Wright : his peer- 
less monographs on "The Vision of War," Love, Liberty, Art and Morality, 
Science, Nature, The Imagination, Decoration Day Oration, What is Poetry. 
Music of Wagner, Origin and Destiny, " Leaves of Grass," and on the great 
heroes of intellectual Liberty. Besides these there are innumerable gems taken 
here and there from the orations, speeches, arguments, toasts, lectures, letters, 
interviews, and day by day conversations of the author. 

The book is designed for, and will be accepted by, admiring friends as a rare per- 
sonal souvenir. To help it serve this purpose, a fine steel portrait, with auto- 
graph fac-simile, has been prepared especially for it. In the more elegant styles 
of binding it is eminently suited for presentation purposes, for any season or 
occasion. 

PsiCEs.—In cloth, beveled boards, gilt edges, $2.50 ; in half morocco, gilt edges, $5; 
in half calf, mottled edges, library style, $4.50 ; in full Turkey morocco, gilt, 
exquisitely fine, $7.50 ; in full tree calf, highest possible finish. $9. 

Ingersoll's Lectures in one volume, contents: The Gods; 

Humboldt ; Individuality ; Thomas Paine ; Heretics and Heresies ; The Ghosts ; 
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child ; The Centennial Oration, or Declara- 
tion of Independence, July 4, 1876 ; What I Know About Farming in Illinois ; 
Speech at Cincinnati in 1876, nominating James G. Blaine for the Presidency ; 
The Past Rises Before Me, or Vision of War, an extract from a Speech made at 
the Soldiers' and Sailors' Reunion at Indianapolis, Ind., Sept. 21, 1876; A Tribute 
to Ebon C. Ingersoll ; The Grant Banquet; Crimes Against Criminals; Tribute 
to the Rev. Alexander Clarke ; Some Mistakes of Moses ; What Must We Do to 
be Saved ? Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by the Rev. 
T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.; to which is added a Talmagian Catechism, and 
Four Prefaces, which contain some of Mr. Ingersoll's wittiest and brightest say- 
ings. 
This volume has the greatest popularity, is beautifully bound in half calf or half 
morocco, mottled edges, 1,357 pages, good paper, large type, post 8vo. Price, 
postpaid, |5.00. 



ROBERT G. INGERSOLL'S WORKS. -Continued. 

God in the Constitution. One of the best papers Colonel Ingersoll 
ever wrote. In paper cover with likeness of author. Price, 10 cents. Twelve 
copies for $i. 

Liberty in Literature. Testimonial to Walt Whitman. "Let us iut 
wreaths on the b?'Oius of the living." An address delivered in Philadelphia, 
Oct. 21, 1890, with Portrait of Whitman. Paper, 25 cents ; cloth, 50 cents. 
Also contains the funeral oration. 

Thomas Paine'S Vindication, A Reply to the New York Observer's 
Attack upon the Author-hero of the Revolution, by R. G. Ingersoll. Paper, 15 c. 

Limitations Of Toleration, A Discussion between Col. R. G. Ingersoll, 
Hon. Frederick R. Coudert, and Ex-Governor Stewart L. Woodford. Paper, 
10 cents. 

Orthodoxy. A Lecture. Paper, 10 cents. 

Civil Rights Speech. With Speech of Hon. Fred'k Douglass. Paper, 
10 cents. 

Ingersoll and the Brooklyn Divines. How the church meet* 

The Demands of the Hour. Paper, 10 cents. 

A Lay Sermon. On the Labor Question. Paper, 5 cents. 

Crimes Against Criminals. Delivered before the New York State 
Bar Association, at Albany, N. Y., Jan. 21, 1890. Paper, 10 cents. 

Life. A Prose-Poem. In color, on board, beveled, gilt edges, 16% xl2, (for 
mantel, wall or easel,) 75 cents. Illustrated. 

Lithograph Of R. G. Ingersoll. 22x 28 inch., heavyplate paper, 50 c. 

Photographs of Col. Ingersoll, 18x24, $5.00. imperial, 73^x13, $1.50. 

Cabinet, 25 cts. Ingersoll and granddaughter Eva III., (a home picture,) 35 cts. 

About the Holy Bible. Just out. A new Lecture About the Holy 
Bible. Price, paper, 25 cents. 

Shakespeare. Inger soil's Great Lecture on Shakespeare, with a rare and 
handsome half-tone picture of the Kesselstadt Death Mask. Paper, 25 cts. 

Lecture on Abraham Lincoln, just out. with a handsome, new 

portrait. Price, paper, 25 cents. 

The Great Ingersoll Controversy, containing the Famous 

Christmas Sermon, by Colonel R. G. Ingersoll. the indignant protests thereby 
evoked from ministers of various denominations, and Col. Ingersoll's replies 
to the same. A work of tremendous interest to every thinking man and woman. 
Price, paper, 25 cts. 

IS Suicide a Sin? "Something Brand New!" Ingersoll's startling, 
brilliant and thrillingly eloquent letters, which created such a sensation when 
published in the New York World, together with the replies of famous clergymen 
and writers, a verdict from a jury of eminent men of New York, Curious Facts 
About Suicides, celebrated essays and opinions of noted men, and an astonish- 
ing and original chapter, Great Suicides of History ! Price, paper, 25 ctfl. 

An Open Letter to Indianapolis Clergymen. By colonel 

R. G. Ingersoll. To which is added " The Genesis of Life," by W. H. Lamaster. 
Paper, 25 cents. 



Col. Ingersoll's Note to the Public. 

Washington, D. C, July 10, 1889. 
I wish to notify the public that all books and pamphlets purporting to contain my lec- 
tures, and not containing the imprint of Mr. C. P. F .verell as publisher, are spurious, 
grossly inaccurate, filled with mistakes, horribly printed, and outrageously unjust to me. 
The publishers of all such are simplv literary thieves and pirates, and are obtaining money 
from the public under false pretences. These wretches have published one lecture under 
four titles, and several others under two or three. I take this course to waro the publio 
that these publications are fraudulent ; the only correct editions being those published by 
Mr. O. P. Paerell. _ _ _ 

R. G. Ingeesoll. 



C. P. FARRELL, 220 Madison Ave., New York. 



1895. Hgv\? k B°oH s - 1895. 

PUBLISHED AND FOB SALE BY 

C. P. FARRELL, 220 Madison Ave., New York. 

Voltaire I A Lecture. By Robert G. Ingersoll, with a portrait of the 
great French Philosopher and Poet, never before published. Paper, 25 cts. 

The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child, with a beautiful 

half-tone picture of Colonel Ingersoll and his two grandchildren, Eva and 
Robert ; also his famous Tribute to his Brother. Price, paper, 25 cents. 

Photographs Of Col. IngerSOll, new, taken by the celebrated 
Sarony, of New York. Cabinet size, 25 cents. 

Ghosts, Devils, Angels and Sun Gods, a series of essays 

against Superstition. By E. C. Kenney. Paper, 25 cents. 

The Martyrdom Of Man. By Winwood Reade. This book is a 
very interestingly pictured synopsis of universal history, showing what the 
race has undergone — its martyrdom— in its rise to its present plane. It 
shows how war and religion have been oppressive factors in the struggle for 
liberty, and the last chapter, of some 150 pages, describes his intellectual 
struggle from the animal period of the earth to the present, adding an out- 
line of what the author conceives would be a religion of reason and love. 
Price, cloth, $1.00. 

A HandbOOk Of FreethOUght. By W. S. Bell, containing in 
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Hume's Essays. Including the Liberty of the Press; The Natural 
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The System Of Nature; or, Laws of the Moral and Physical World. 
By Baron D'Holbach. "One of the greatest books ever written. It never 
was and never will be answered."— R. G. Ingersoll. Price, $2.00. 

Volney's New Researches in Ancient History ; show- 
ing the origin of the Mosaic Legends concerning the Creation, Fall of Man, 
Flood, and Confusion of Languages. $1.50. 

Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary. Fifteenth American 

Edition. Two volumes in one. 876 large octavo pages, two elegant steel en- 
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Half Hours with some Celebrated Freethinkers. 

Thomas Hobbs, Lord Bolinbroke, Condorcet, Spinoza, Anthony Collins, 
Des Cartes, M. de Voltaire, John Toland, Comte de Volney, Charles Blount, 
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Helvetius, Frances Wright, Zeno, Epicurus, Matthew 
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Mirabaud, Baron de Holbach, Robert Taylor, Joseph Barker. By l< Icono- 
clast," Collins, and Watts. Cloth, 75 cents. 

ReligiOUS Worship. The Origin of all Religious Worsh p, translated 
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Creed Of Christendom. By W. R. Greg. Its Foundation con- 
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A FeW DayS in Athens. New Edition. Everybody who knows 
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History of the First Council of Nice: a world's christian 

Convention, A. D., 325, with a life of Constantine. By Dean Dudley. Price, 
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The CanOn Of the Bible : Its Formation, History, and Fluctua- 
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A General Survey of the History of the Canon of 

the New Testament. By Brooke FossWesctcott,D.D., London, 
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The English Life of Jesus: By Thomas scott, Lond. cio.,$x.6o. 

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The Bible in India: Byjacoiiiot. cioth, $ 2 .oo. 

History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. 

By H. C. Lea. 3 vols., large 8vo. $9.00. 

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. 782 pp., $1.50. ' 

(OVBB). 



NEW BOOKS, 1895.-Continued. 



Rev. ROBERT TAYLOR'S WORKS. 

I He LJiegeSlS. Being a Discovery of the Origin, Evidences, and early 
History of Christianity, never yet before or elsewhere so fully and faithfully 
set forth. By Rev. Robert Taylor. This work was written by Mr. Taylor 
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Redeemer. Cloth, $1.50. 

AstrO-TheOlOgical LeCtUreS. Allegorical Meaning of the Bible: 
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Sarah ; Melchisedec ; The Lord ; Moses, The Twelve Patriarchs ; Who is the 
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The Syntagma. Being a vindication of the Manifesto of the Christian 
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The Intellectual Development of Europe. By johnw. 

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The Conflict between Science and Religion. Draper, 

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Buckle's History of Civilization in England, a vols., 

cloth, $4.00. 

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Analysis Of ReligiOUS Belief. By Viscount Amberley. Exam. 
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The Essence Of Christianity. By Ludwig Feurbach. London, 
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Cloth, gilt top, $1.00. . _ .---.„ . _ A ,_ 

This book is the grandest achievement of modern scientific thought and research. It has 
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tion. The thought of this book has become a part of the common inheritance of the race. 
The Descent Of Man. By Charles Darwin -Cloth, gilt top, $1.00. 

On its appearance it aroused at once a storm of mingled wrath, wonder and admiration. 
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H. M. S. u Beagle " Round the World. Cloth, 75 cts.; half calf, $1.75. 

Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions. 

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morocco. S^.oo. 
Prof. Max Muller says—" All truth is safe, and nothing else is safe ; and he who keeps back 
the truth, or withholds it from men, from motives of expediency, is either a coward or a 
criminal, or both. He who knows onlv one religion, knows none." 
Rev. M. J. Savage, (Boston.) says—" To me, the volume is worth twenty times its cost M 

gent by mail op express charges paid^ upon receipt of price. 

f /OVBB.} 



B.H'S.W "aDITIOH. JUST FUBIASmiD \ 

Q S^ or ^ Histopy of the ^ible: 

Being an account of the formation and development of the Canon, by 

BRONSON C. KEELER. 

Price, Cloth, 75 cents. Paper, 50 cents. Postage paid. 

This Book should be read by every Clergyman, Layman, Scholar and Liberal. 

Everybody knows that the contents of the Bible were voted upon by different 
councils of the church ; that books were included in the early centuries which 
are no longer regarded as a part of the sacred scriptures ; that many of the 
books now in the Bible were for centuries not a part of it ; and that bishops, and 
synods, and councils labored long to agree upon what books should be con- 
sidered canonical and what should not be. But the general knowledge has been 
indefinite. Few people are aware, for example, that the book of Revelation 
was for 1500 years rejected by the Eastern branch of the Christian church, and 
was voted into the Bible by that branch at a council held in Jerusalem in 1672. 
The aim of Mr. Keeler's book is to go over this entire ground from the beginning 
of the Christian era to the present time, and to furnish all the facts concerning 
the formation and development of the Bible canon, giving briefly but succinctly 
the views of each bishop and the action of every council having any influence 
on the contents of the sacred volume. Mr. Keeler does not. deal in opinions. He 
simply states facts, and gives a reference for each fact to the early Christian 
fathers and other recognized authorities ; and it is believed that his book 
throws much light on a hitherto obscured department of religious history. 

"I have read Mr. Keeler's book with great pleasure and profit. He gives, in 
my opinion, a clear and intelligent, account of the growth of the bible. He 
shows why books were received as inspired, and why they were rejected. He 
does not deal in opinions, but in facts ; and for the correctness of his facts, he 
refers to the highest authorities. He has shown exactly who the Christian 
fathers were, and the weight that their evidence is entitled to. The first cen- 
turies of Christianity are filled with shadow ; most histories of that period 
simply tell us what did not happen, and even the statements of what did not 
happen are contradictory. The falsehoods do not agree. Mr. Keeler must have 
spent a great deal of time in the examination of a vast number of volumes, and 
the amount of information contained in his book could not be collected in years. 
Every minister, every college professor, and every man who really wishes to 
know something about the origin and growth of the bible, should read this 

book."— R. G. INGERSOLL. 

To C. P. Farrell, Esq.— Often have I wished that some writer, who had a 
learned head and a lucid pen, would give us a brief yet comprehensive account 
of the Books of the Bible — how we came by them — when the world first got 
them — and what were the qualities, characters and pretensions of those who 
first imposed them upon credulous and superstitious believers. Often have I 
wished that if such a book were written, some publisher, having the ear of the 
Free Thought world, would issue it. Great was my surprise and pleasure when 
I saw at Washington, Bronson Keeler's "Short History of the Bible 11 we have, 
and the marvellous number of suppressed Scriptures — all Christian, all curi- 
ous, all instructive — most of them wiser, all equally authentic, and all believed 
to be equally divine by those who had better means of judging them than we 
have. All who are Christian — all who think they ought to be — and all who 
are not — should read Mr. Keeler's " Short," masterly and wise book.— GEORGE 
Jacob Holyoake, London, England. 

The New York Sun, (Sunday, Oct. 9, 1881, in a review occupying four and one- 
quarter columns) : " On what questionable ground some writings were admitted 
and others excluded from the Christian scriptures is briefly and effectively set 
forth in a monograph entitled K A Short History of the Bible? by Bronso'n C. 
Keeler. The writer of this striking essay has not drawn his materials from the 
German rationalists, but bases his assertions on the statements of Christian his- 
torians and commentators, especially on the writings of the Christian fathers 
and the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius, and, among modern works, on 
Milman's ''History of Latin Christianity? and the disquisitions of Wescott, 
Davidson, Lange and Schaff. We trust that no one who has been led by the 
appearance of the revised version to ponder the origin and history of the sacred 
writings will fail to examine for himself Mr. Keeler's admirable monograph." 

Address C. P. FARRELL, Publisher, New York, 



1 
] 



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Meslier'S Superstition in All Ages. Jean Meslier was a Roman Cath- 
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INGERSOLL'S LECTURES, 

+ IN ONE VOLUMES 



CONTENTS: 

/ 

THE GODS. HUMBOLDT, INDIVIDUALITY, 

THOMAS PAINE, HERETICS AND HERESIES. 

THE GHOSTS. 

THE LIBERTY OF MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD, 

THE CENTENNIAL ORATION, OR DECLARATION OF 
INDEPENDENCE, July 4, 1876. 

WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FARMING IN ILLINOIS. 

SPEECH AT CINCINNATI IN 1876, nominating 

James G. Blaine for the Presidency. 

THE PAST RISES BEFORE ME; OR, VISION OF WAR, 
an extract from a Speech made at the Soldiers and Sailors 
Reunion at Indianapolis, Indiana, Sept. 21, 1876. 

A TRIBUTE TO EBON C. INGERSOLL. 

SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES. 

WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED? 

SIX INTERVIEWS WITH ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 

ON SIX SERMONS BY THE Rev. T. DEWITT 

TALMAGE, D. D. ; to which is added a 

TALMAGIAN CATECHISM. 

And FOUR PREFACES, which contain some of Mr. Ingersoll's 
wittiest and brightest sayings. 

This volume contains a fine steel portrait of the author, and 
has had the greatest popularity, is beautifully bound in Half 
Morocco, mottled edges, 1,300 pages, good paper, large type, 
small 8vo. 

Price, post paid, $5.00. 



«Tufiit Out, 3NTe*w Bdltloaii 

Prose-Poems anil Selections, 

BY 

ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, 

Sixth Edition, Revised and greatly Enlarged. A Handsome Quarto, 
containing over 400 pages. 

THIS is, beyond question, the most elegant volume in Liberal literature. Its 
mechanical finish is worthy of its intrinsic excellence. No expense has 
been spared to make if the thing" of beauty it is. The type is large and 
clear, the paper heavy, highly calendered and richly tinted, the press- 
work faultless, and the binding as perfect as the best materials and skill can 
make it. The book is in every way an artistic triumph. 

As to the contents, it is enough to say that they include some of the choicest 
utterances of the greatest writer on the topics treated that has ever lived. 

You will have in this book of selections many bright samples of his lofty 
thought, his matchless eloquence, his wonderful imagery, and his epigrammatic 
and poetic power. 

The book is designed for, and will be accepted by, admiring friends as a rare 
personal souvenir. To help it serve this purpose, a fine steel portrait, with au- 
tograph fac-simile, has been prepared especially for it. In the more elegant 
styles of binding it is eminently suited for presentation purposes, for any season 
or occasion. 

CONTENTS. 



Oration delivered on Decora- 
tion Day, 1882. before the 
Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic, at the Academy of 
Music, N. Y., 

A Tribute to Ebon C. Inger- 
soll, 

A Vision of War. 

At a Child's Grave, 

Benefits for Injuries, 

We Build, 

A Tribute to the Rev. Alex- 
ander Clark, 

The Grant Banquet, 

Apostrophe to Liberty. 

A Tribute to Jonn G. Mills, 

The Warp and Woof, 

The Cemetery, 

Originality, 

Then and Now, 

Voltaire, 

Lazarus. 

What is Worship ? 

Humboldt, 

God Silent, 

Alcohol, 

Auguste Comte, 

The Infidel, 

Napolecn, 

The Republic, 

Dawn of the New Day, 

Reformers, 

The Garden of Eden, 

Thomas Paine, 

The Age of Faith, 

Origin of Religion, 



The Unpardonable Sin, 

The Olive Branch, 

Free Will, 

'J 'he King of Death, 

The Wise Man, 

Bruno, 

The Real Bible, 

Benedict Spinoza, 

The First Doubt, 

The Infinite Horror, 

Nature, 

Night and Morning, 

The Conflict, 



Death of the Aged, 

:.. of Ext 

Woman, 



The Charity of Extravagance 



The Sacred Myths, 

Inspiration, 

Religious Liberty of the Bible. 

The Laugh of a child. 

The Christian Night, 

My Choice, 

Why? 

Imagination. 

Science, 

If Death Ends All, 

Here and There, 

How Long ? 

Liberty. 

Jehovah and Brahma, 

The Free Soul, 

Life, 

Tribute to Henry Ward 

Beecher, 
Tribute to Courtlandt Palmer 
The Brain, 



The Sacred Leaves, 

Origin and Destiny. 

What is Poetry ? 

My Position, 

Good and Bad, 

The Miraculous Book, 

Orthodox Dotage, 

The Abolitionists, 

Providence, 

The Man Christ, 

The Divine Salutation, 

At the Grave of Benjamin W. 

Parker, 
Fashion and Beauty. 
Apostrophe to Science, 
Elizur Wright. 
The Imagination, 
No Respecter of Persons, 
Abraham Lincoln, 
The Meaning of Law, 
What is Blasphemy? 
Some Reasons, 
Selections, 
Love, 

The Birthnlace of Burns. 
Mrs. Ida Whiting Knowles, 
Art and Morality, 
Tribute to Roscoe Conklin, 
Tribute to Rich'd H.Whiting. 
Mrs. Mary H. Fiske, 
Horace Seaver, 
The Music of Wagner, 
Leaves of Grass, 
Vivisection, 

The Republic of Mediocrity, 
A Tribute to Walt Whitman 



In Cloth, beveled boards, gilt edges, - - $2.50 

In Half Morocco, gilt edges, - 5.00 

In Half Calf, mottled edges, library style, - 4.50 

In Full Turkey Morocco, gilt, exquisitely fine, 7.50 

In Full Tree-Calf, highest possible finish, - 9.00 

Sent to any address, by express, prepaid, or mail, post free, on receipt of price. 
8&-A cheaper edition from same plates, good paper, wide margins, cloth, $1.50.* = ©8k 

Address C. P. FARRELL, Publisher, 

July, 1895. New York City. N.Y. 



•Jjiiimiimiim 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS % 

iniiiiiiiiiiiiii 

021 898 579 8 



New Books by Col. R. 6. Ingersoll. 



"AbOUt the Holy Bible." New Lecture. Paper, 25cts. 
Foundations Of Faith. A New Lecture. Paper, 25cts. 
Some Reasons Why. A New Lecture. Paper, 25 cts. 
Myth and Miracle. Now published for tlie first time. Paper, 25cts. 
Which Way ? A New Lecture, revised and enlarged. Paper, 25 cts. 

Ingersoll's Great Lecture on Shakespeare, a Master- 

piece, containing a handsome half-tone likeness of Shakespeare from the Kes- 
selstadt death mask. " Shakespeare was an intellectual ocean whose waves 
touched all the shore's of thought." Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

Abraham Lincoln. Containing a handsome portrait, " A piece of sublime 
eulogy." Paper, 25 cts. 

Voltaire. With portrait, "He was the greatest man of his century, and did 
more to free the human race than any other of the sons of men." Paper, 25 cts. 

Liberty for Man, Woman and Child. Has a fine photo-engrav- 
ing of the Colonel and both his grandchildren, Eva and Robert; also the 
TRIBUTE TO HIS BROTHER. Paper, 25 cts. 

The Great Ingersoll Controversy, containing the 

Christmas Sermon, by R. G. Ingersoll. Paper, 25 cts. 

IS Suicide a Sin? Ingersoll's startling, brilliant and thrillingly elccuen t 
letters, which created such a sensation when published in the New York World, 
together with the replies of famous clergymen and writers. Paper, *~5 cts. 

"Prose-Poems and Selections." a new and cheap edition, 

containing over 400 pages. The most elegant volume in Liberal literature. 
Good paper, wide margins, plain cloth, (sixth edition.) Price, $1.50. 

Two Patriotic Addresses, the reunion address atEimwood> 

Ills., September 5th, 1895, and the DECORATION-DAY ORATION in New York> 
May 30th, 1882. Both in one book. Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

The Centennial Oration on tho Declaration of Indrnptulence, 

nw WAR," in one neat pamphlet. 10 cts. 

One of the best papers Colonel Ingersoll 



? amous =J 



God in the Constitution. 

ever wrote. Price, 10 cts. 

The Christian Religion. By Col. R. G. Ingersoll and Judge Jeremiah 
S. Black. Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

The Fie!d = lngerSOll DiSCUSSion. Faith or Agnosticism ? Paper, 
25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

The Ingersoll-Gladstone Discussion on Christianity. 

Never before published in book form. Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 

"Life of Jesus Critically Examined," by David Friediich 

Strauss. This edition is translated from the fourth German edition by George 
Eliot, and contains 784 large octavo pages of solid reading. This is a very valua- 
ble work, one which the church wishes had never been written, but which it 
cannot controvert. One volume, $4.50. (Now out of print and very hard to get.) 
Never sold before for less than $9.00. 



SF>E>CIAL, 



notice:. 

I have a few copies of Col. Ingersoll's speech on " Hard Times and the Way Out,'' 
;e, paper, 20 cts. Also a few Copies of the " Conkling Memorial," with fine steel 
Price, cloth, 50 cts. 



price. 

engraving 



A?ty or all the above Books sent prepaid upon receipt of price. 

C. F>. FARRELL, PUBLISHER, 
220 Madison Avenue, New York. 



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